Family seeks justice in murder trial

Charleen Simons’ family described her as a strong-willed, tough woman Tuesday while on recess from the murder trial for William Earl Huffstetler, a man charged in connection with her 1995 death.

Charleen Simons’ family described her as a strong-willed, tough woman Tuesday while on recess from the murder trial for William Earl Huffstetler, a man charged in connection with her 1995 death. Robert Macleod, the oldest of Simons’ three children, said she was a good, protective mom.“She basically raised us pretty much on her own,” he said. In 1995, Simons applied for disability but had been turned down. She was in the process of appealing, and in the meantime ran a bar called The Log Cabin in Kings Mountain, where she also lived. The city and county were dry at the time; Simons was operating the bar illegally. Her family doesn’t apologize for her choices. “She did what she had to do to live,” said Wendy Causby, her daughter. Causby said her mom had two sisters, a mother who was alive when Simons was killed, and a brother who had died before then. She has three grandchildren and now two great-grandchildren. After nearly 20 years since Simons’ death, her family was present for the first day of Huffstetler’s trial this week. Causby said the family isn’t accusing anyone; they’re just here to listen to the evidence. “We want justice. Nobody wants to see an innocent man go to jail,” said Macleod. As a Christian, Macleod said he prays for Huffstetler and his family, but he said if Huffstetler did commit the crime, he should be punished. The hardest part, the family said, is missing their loved one. “She was our life. She’s very missed and very loved,” Causby said.

Witnesses As family members of both the victim and the accused sat in the courtroom benches Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Sally Kirby-Turner and Huffstetler’s attorney, Doug Hall, presented their opening statements to the jury. The final members of the jury were selected early Tuesday morning.After opening statements, Kirby-Turner began to call witnesses to testify before the jury about the events of June 20, 1995. The first to testify was Sharon Blanton. Sharon was the first person to find Simons dead in The Log Cabin, after Blanton went to the bar to buy beer. She said she found Simons with a hole in her head, sitting in an office chair behind the bar. She went to the phone at the bar, but found it pulled out from the wall. She said she wiped off the phone after she touched it, then, she and two men with her went to a pay phone nearby to call the police. She did not know the name of one of the men with her. Wayne Blanton was the second to testify. He said Sharon is his brother’s wife and that he and a group of friends went to visit and drink with Simons every Tuesday at her bar. On the night of June 20, Wayne said, he and Sharon went to the bar at about midnight. Sharon entered first and “went hysterical” for a few minutes after finding Simons dead, Wayne said. He called 911 at a pay phone about three minutes from The Log Cabin, he said. Kings Mountain Police Chief Melvin Proctor then testified. He said he was the officer dispatched to the bar that night when the call came in at about 1:30 a.m. He described the bar for the jury and Simons’ appearance when he found her. A trooper who arrested Huffstetler for DWI the night of Simons’ death testified about the vehicle stop he made on Huffstetler, and the time of arrest, which was between 1 a.m. and 1:05 a.m. early June 21. Huffstetler and two other men who are charged in connection with Simons’ death were in the car during the vehicle stop. Huffstetler was arrested on DWI charges, and the car’s owner, Gator Walter Martin of Comer, Ga., was arrested for aiding and abetting DWI that night. At the time, the men were not connected to the killing. William Lane, former SBI investigator and now private investigator, was the fifth witness. In 1995, he was working on a homicide team and conducting crime scene searches for the state. He was called out to The Log Cabin at 3 a.m. and arrived about 3:45 a.m., he said. Lane described the victim and the scene, saying it looked like a club with multiple areas, including a bar, a pool table, a bandstand and an office. Simons was wearing a “We Have Risen” T-shirt with a rebel flag on it and had a small cut on her hand, Lane said. Two lacerations were on her scalp and she had six stab wounds in her chest. The wounds to her neck “cut completely through to the spinal cord,” he said. A broken cue stick was found in the bar’s garbage can and several pieces of white wood, which he said matched the stick’s other end, were found on the floor. The phone was damaged and not functional.

What’s next? The trial will continue this week, dependent on the weather, for at least six days, Kirby-Turner told The Gazette's sister newspaper The Star on Monday. Huffstetler is one of three men who were charged in February 2012 in connection with Simons’ death. The killing was a cold case until Huffstetler and the other two men were arrested 17 years after the killing. Along with Huffstetler, Martin and Randy Wagenknect, of Knoxville, Tenn., were also arrested. Martin and Wagenknect have pleaded guilty in the case but have not been sentenced, Kirby-Turner previously told The Star. Both are expected to testify in the case, Hall said on Tuesday.